Stash

Stash is a app that aims to simplify investing for beginners, offering the opportunity to invest in “themes” based on not just their risk tolerance and goals but also their interests and values, and to do so for as little as $5 in an account. The themes are exchange-traded funds repackaged with easy-to-understand, catchy names. Stash isn’t a robo-advisor — it won’t rebalance or manage your investments for you — but rather a tool to guide investors through the process of selecting investments. First three months free.

Customer support

QUICK FACTS

Account fee: $1/month for accounts under $5,000; 0.25% for accounts $5,000 or more.

Account minimum: $5.

Promotion: Free for the first three months.

Account subscription fee

$1/month for accounts under $5,000; 0.25% for accounts $5,000 or more. Stash is not a robo-advisor and does not have discretion to manage customer accounts. Over 30 ETFs available

Low account minimum: All it takes is $5 to get started with Stash, a reasonable minimum for even the greenest of investors. That low minimum is made possible by fractional shares: Stash buys the ETFs, then splits them among its investors. That means you can build a diversified portfolio with very little money.

Stash’s goal is to introduce beginners to investing. The app guides new account holders through a simple getting-started process, that will determine risk tolerance and goals. Based on that information it produces a list of suggested ETFs, narrowing the options to those that make sense for the user’s financial situation. The app notes which investments should serve as the foundation of the portfolio — the largest slice of the user’s asset allocation — and which should be considered a complement. The user is responsible for building a portfolio out of the suggestions, but the app will nudge back or serve up educational content if it notices a lack of diversification. It’s a valuable lesson. Knowing how to build a portfolio out of ETFs or other funds can save investors a lot of money compared with managed alternatives like robo-advisors and target-date funds.

Stash also has a tool to motivate users to invest additional money. Users can quickly adjust a slider to indicate their monthly deposit and growth potential, or anticipated investment return, and the app will show how much the user could have after one year, five years and 10 years.

All of the information provided on this page and logo comes from the Stashwebsite and from nerdwallet.com.